Affymetrix’s subsidiary eBioscience will distribute Luminex’s Magmix, Luminex 200 and Flexmap 3D assay platforms in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and China.

The platforms will also be marketed in The Netherlands, Germany, France, the UK, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg and Poland.

Luminex’s products will be sold along with ProcartaPlex multiplexed immunoassays and QuantiGene Plex multiplexed quantitative gene expression assays.

Affymetrix senior vice-president Dara Grantham Wright and eBioscience general manager Dara Grantham Wright said: "This agreement deepens our relationship with Luminex, and will provide our customers an integrated solution to access a best-in-class platform with an ever-expanding, high-quality assay menu."

The assay platforms of Luminex are used in the fields of drug discovery and development, immuno-oncology and translational research.

Magpix is deployed to carry out 50 different tests in a single reaction volume and reads a 96-well plate in one hour. Luminex 200 System can perform around 100 different tests in a single reaction volume while using either magnetic or polystyrene microspheres.

Flexmap 3D holds capacity to simultaneously measure up to 500 genes or proteins from a small sample.

Luminex global sales and customer operations vice-president Todd Bennett said: "By enabling Affymetrix to offer both Luminex multiplexing instruments and Affymetrix assays, we can further drive accessibility to customers focused on disease-related research around the world."

In July, Affymetrix partnered with Cytox to develop and commercialize blood-based genetic assay for risk assessment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).